Daisy Rolling Mill was one of many flour mills built in the 1890s in an area then known as the East End Milling District, but it alone survived a devastating fire in 1914. It was the last of its kind in the Twin Ports when Peavey closed it in the 1970s.

On your left you see Dock 6, retrofitted with conveyor belts, swarming with hard men and cold trains, bathed in orange light and smelling of taconite, oil, and sweat. On the right is a stripped, dark, empty, motionless chunk of steel jutting into Lake Superior, an island in so many ways. Read on to find out where the good days went.

Climb­ing that lad­der let me see through the steam, by the orange light of the sun­set dump­ing through the sooted sky­lights like the shop lights on the dead crane. It had been a while since it lifted a loco­mo­tive off its cha­sis, but the smell of grease was still strong enough to lubri­cate my sinuses

This armory was built in 1915 for the 3rd Regiment of the Minnesota National Guard. During the World Wars, it was a place where troops would train and muster, and where equipment was stored. Occasionally, […]